• The Bible is NOT obsessed with heaven. When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God, in general, He is not talking about a future housing for God and His people-He is talking about a way of living here and now. The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven must be the servant of all (Matthew 18), Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5), “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven . . .” Most of Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of heaven has everything to do with the here and the now. What we think of as heaven, however, the future dwelling place for God and His people for eternity, is the focus of very little of the Bible. Aside from a few chapters at the end of Ezekiel and two chapters in Revelation, the Bible actually has very little to say about heaven as a place or a reward.
• Secular Culture, however, IS obsessed with heaven.
• Cartoons about Heaven [slide of cat & dog heaven cartoons]
• (will there be animals in heaven?) –aside from a horse Jesus rides on his return to earth there is no mention of animals in heaven. C.S. Lewis seems to have thought there would be animals in heaven. I will simply confess, I don’t know. There are certainly a few pets I’d like to see there
• (back to secular culture)
• Movies about heaven-many of them have something about someone who died, and isn’t quite ready for heaven, or has to do some kind of good deed to earn the passage to the real resting place. [slides of several film advertisements]
• TV The Simpsons is just one program which seems obsessed with it’s own version of heaven. [slide]
• Songs about heaven like Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” written as one means to deal with the grief of the death of Clapton's 4 year old son, who fell from a 53rd story apartment to his death.
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven
I must be strong and carry on
Cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven
• People who claim to have died and gone to heaven: If you search for it you’ll find too many stories about people either dying and going to heaven, or having some kind of vision of heaven. Years ago a group visited our campus & spoke in chapel and a man told about a vision he had had of heaven-he described many strange things. When he started talking about flowers talking to him I decided I had heard enough and left the chapel to do more valuable things with my time. People who claim to have gone to heaven are not authorities on anything and we should only listen to them if they match what the Bible teaches-and, especially, if they have the sense to say what Paul said about his near-death experience. He said human speech simply doesn’t have the capacity to convey the glories he had seen (2 Corinthians 12)
• Different definitions of Heaven: There are many different concepts of heaven-other religions, and popular culture, have various concepts of what heaven is like. I’m interested in what the Bible teaches about heaven, and that is the focus of our investigation today.
• Where is heaven? Not past the last star (somewhere past 13.7 billion light years away). Physicists suggest the possibility of entire universes passing through each other without being aware of one another’s existence. I think heaven is something like that. When Gabriel appears to Zechariah, and Zech questions Gabriel about the validity of his promise, Gabriel says “I am Gabriel and I stand in the presence of God.” The angel did not say “I was standing” or “I will stand”, but, literally, he said “I am standing in the presence of God”. Gabriel may have been merely proclaiming his status, but I think he was also describing his location. While the angel spoke to Zechariah, he was also beholding God’s face, standing in His throne room. I believe this is what heaven is like. It is so distant, you could travel to the end of the visible universe and yet not reach it, yet so close, for those who are open to God’s presence, He is “closer than a heartbeat or the air we breathe”.
• Why should I want to go there? It’s hard to imagine a description of a more beautiful place-but more than that because of those who will be there.
• Should I be praying to anyone there? Yes! Absolutely, as long as it’s God (John 16-even Jesus said he would not ask the Father on our behalf, but God Himself loves us & would answer our prayers as we ask Him directly in Jesus’ name. Why would ANYONE want to ask someone to talk to God on his behalf when his is invited by God to speak directly to Him?).
• How do we get there? The entry requirements are clear. I think no one of us qualifies-our entrance must be by God’s grace, not because we deserve to go there.
• What will it be like? That is the question Revelation 21 seeks to answer.
Revelation 21:
10 And he [Jesus] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.
On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
. . . 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
The point is NOT that there are a bunch of precious and simi-precious stones in heaven. In August 2011 scientists discovered a planet the size of Jupiter, orbiting a pulsar, made up almost entirely of diamond-they theorize it is a collapsed star (http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2090471,00.html ) . Last year scientists at Yale discovered a planet made of graphite and diamond- “The study estimates that at least a third of the planet's mass — the equivalent of about three Earth masses — could be diamond.”
( http://news.yale.edu/2012/10/11/nearby-super-earth-likely-diamond-planet )
The point is very different, and is revealed in the Old Testament (like all of the images of Revelation)
Exodus 28:15 “Fashion a breastpiece . . . Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. The first row shall be carnelian, chrysolite and beryl; . . . There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.
The stones are another image of the People of God in the presence of God.
21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl.
I can’t help but be reminded of the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price-a man, finding a pearl in a field, sells all he has and buys the field so he can obtain the pearl.
This can be understood at least two ways-The Kingdom of God is so valuable it is worth a man’s complete wealth to obtain it. Or, from the opposite direction-the Pearl is a Gentile decoration (the clam from which the pearl is obtained is an unclean animal, therefore the pearl is technically unclean for the Jew). God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order to obtain His (mostly) Gentile Bride. So, again, the Pearl can be another representation of the People of God in the presence of God.
The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
Pure gold is both reflective and transparent-filtering out harmful radiation and yet allowing in visible light. It is used in the visors of space suits-astronauts can see through it with perfect clarity, but it filters out the dangerous and damaging cosmic rays. [image of astronaut in space with gold visor]
But I think, again, the value and properties of the gold are really not important to God.
There is something better than gold:
The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold Psalm 19
And this brings us to our text for this morning-the point of this chapter-and the culmination of the Book of Revelation and, in a larger sense, of the whole Bible.
Revelation 21 22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
A few points from all of these meditations:
1. All of the elements that form Heaven represent God’s People-they all work together, complete cooperation, complete unity. They form the housing for God.
2. The reason for wanting to go to heaven is not what the beauty or value of its architecture, but for the wonder of the company, our companionship-family, friends, the Family of God and, most wondrously, God Himself.
3. This perspective should change the way we view life here, our day-to-day grind.
"Therefore the apostle Paul said, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for those who love him.' Yet the human eye has seen many admirable things in nature. It has seen mountains of crystal, and rocks of diamonds, it has seen mines of gold, and coasts of pearls. Nevertheless, the eye that has seen so many wonders in the world below could never pry into the glories of this triumphant place. And though the ear of man has heard many delightful and harmonious sounds, even all that man and nature could supply him with, yet he has never heard the heavenly melody which both saints and angels make before the throne. The heart of man is so fine and imaginative that it can conceive almost anything that is, or was, or ever shall be in the world below, and even what shall never be. Man can conceive that every stone on earth shall be turned into pearls, and every blade of grass into the brightest of shining jewels. He can conceive that the whole earth be turned into a mass of pure gold, and the air turned into crystal. He can conceive every star to become as bright as the sun, and the sun to be a thousand times larger and brighter. But all this is infinitely short of what the eternal Majesty has prepared for all His faithful followers."
"That little spot that now looks so dark and despised is the world which you have lived on. To obtain one small part of that spot of earth so many men have risked and lost their immortal souls; which are so precious that the Prince of Peace has told us that though a man could gain the whole world, it would not equal so great a loss. As you have ascended higher towards heaven, the world has appeared still smaller and more insignificant; and it will appear the same to all who can by faith get their hearts above it.”
. . . .
John Bunyan, Visions of Heaven & Hell
This week was Thanksgiving in the US, and a few other countries. We actually celebrated Thanksgiving twice-once last week with some friends, because I had gotten the dates mixed up & invited them a bit early, and this week with some family and friends again. So we’ve had time to think about what we’re thankful for. I think most of us, when we contemplate gratefulness, are thankful for good fortune. C. S. Lewis suggests we should be thankful for more than just the good fortune.
"We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country." C. S. Lewis
Heaven need not be an obsession, yet our relationship with God should be. It is this relationship which drives everything good in our lives. It is motivation for love for each other, gives us strength for today, and fills with hope for an eternity with God and His people.
Song: How Great Thou Art
